While researching, I've come across anime that never followed the trends at the time of their release, this could be a number of reasons, they were ahead of their time, they missed their time, can't be described as matching any trend or missed the point entirely.
10. Sakura Wars
The Steampunk genre never actually caught on as an anime trend despite many fans liking the aesthetic for costume design. Period piece anime often covered drama, romance or popular masterpiece stories and even those stories set in Britain were more based on British myths and legends. Sakura Wars was popular but didn't last.
9. Saiyuki
Journey to the West has been covered dozens of times but not in the way Kazuya Minekura did, the band of four males led by a disgruntled priest more resembling Final Fantasy 15 than anime. Way ahead of it's time.
8. Fancy Lala
Adapted from the prototype Fashion Lala, Fancy Lala is a magical girl series where the lead character uses a magical item to become a young adult to either solve problems or become a star, they were very popular in the 80s but died off thanks to Sailor Moon, Fancy Lala missed the boat by a decade.
7. Yokai Watch
Much like Fancy Lala, it arrived a decade after it's trend had passed, for Yokai Watch it's the Pokemon clones, although it had reasonable popularity, it was really short lived.
6. G Gundam
While every Gundam series is an epic war space opera, G Gundam is a testosterone fueled robot battle tournament, as I consider Gundam it's own trend, this one really feels out of place.
5. Angelic Layer
You make an anime about fighting toy dolls but don't make it an actual toyline at a time where toy anime was in fashion. Another poor decision from Clamp.
4. Stop Hibari Kun
The anime itself was trendy as a romantic comedy in the early 80s when Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku were king. It's themes on Gender Identity were 40 years ahead of it's time.
3. Tenchi Muyo
More of a Western perspective on this one, why introduce a sci-fi romcom that popularised the harem genre on Toonami among shows like Gundam Wing and Dragonballz? Yeah it had action but not that much, most episodes of Tenchi were very sitcom like in presentation, it's alternate name No Need For Tenchi is a quip on lead character Tenchi's lack of presence despite being the lead.
2. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an 80s manga franchise that took 20 years to see an anime adaption that came in as a force of nature no one saw coming that ignored all the trends and could never be imitated, only one older series surpasses it.
1. Lupin the 3rd
Lupin the 3rd has been in every era of anime since 1967 and has never had to change anything, it's never been imitated, it's never followed trends, it's the most original IP in all of Anime next to only Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
